4 posts tagged “australia”
last post about australia for now, i swear. i just want to wrap it up with a few shots from the coast, since we went for a couple of good walks on the beaches. we all know i have a thing for sand, so it seems only fitting. plus this was the kind of squeaky sand that sounds like corduroy rubbing against itself when you walk through it. i'm sure no one i was with got at all tired of me scuffing my feet.
no trip abroad is complete without making a fuss over the local fauna. although the more dangerous beasts of oz kept their distance (no snakes, blue-ringed octos or particularly bitey spiders), we did have some nice run-ins with the scaly and feathered. ibises, although introduced, are now pretty ubiquitous in the cities.
lorikeets swooped regularly through the back yard of the pebbles-in-law, brightening the rain with their tropical colors and cheeky chat.
magpies, which are a terrible pest in new zealand, are at least tolerated in aus (where they're native). and their fluting song makes a nice wake-up call.
here we are, back from our little jaunt to brisbane / gold coast over easter. it was great to see the pebbles-in-law and to catch up with tomboy. there were easter egg hunts, water fights, frogmouth and fruit-bat sightings, and even enough breaks in the rain and clouds to allow a few excursions. we spent a night in brisbane before the obligatory ikea pilgrimage and went for nice walks along south bank, investigated the university of queensland (lovely campus!) and went for walks on the beach. we realized we'd been traveling to brisbane together for over five years - it was our first joint overseas destination. (all together now - awwww.) and still, we managed not to see any migrating whales - every time we visit we hear that humpbacks are commonly sighted off shore at certain times of year (and we were pretty sure that included easter), and every time we somehow manage to miss them. true to form, we heard yesterday that the day after we left, dolphins were sighted just meters off shore from one of the spots we'd been to while visiting. ah well, the birds and herps put on a good show - will post them over the next few days.
this is an echidna, or australian spiny ant-eater, Zaglossus sp.
it is one of two living groups of monotremes, or mammals that lay eggs. and while it doesn't have poisonous spurs like the platypus, it has plenty of spikes elsewhere. also, it has a very long, thin snoot and tiny eyes, giving it a very amusing, if bewildered, appearance as it digs its way out of the leaf-litter.
inside the snoot is a long, thin tongue used for slurping up ants, termites and other insects. or a 'low-fat meat mix' used to supplement the diet, if it's in captivity.
this echidna, although understandably burrowed away out of the rain on saturday morning, obligingly trundled up out of the ground (bringing most of its den along stuck to its back) in order to lap at the delicious-looking lunch set out for it at currumbin wildlife sanctuary. and although it wasn't as cuddly as the more traditionally iconic australian mammals, i think it was one of my favorites.
